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The Raw and The Cooked

Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living

Powering Through Doorstop Books

Powering Through Doorstop Books | By Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

 For one of my three book clubs, I pitched The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I had no idea it was nearly 600 pages long when I suggested it (LADIES I’M SORRY!). If you’re wondering, it turns out that it was a winner across the board! ANYWAY, a long book can seem overwhelming, I totally get that. And I know most people can be turned off by a doorstop book. Because let’s be real for a second, reading any book cover to cover is a time commitment. And anything over 400 pages is a serious time commitment. 

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Book Club | The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Book Club | The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne | By Dara Boxer at Peonies and BeesIf you’re only going to read a handful of books this year, make sure you read The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. Everything about this book is incredible. It is truly a wonderful and perfect story. I literally have nothing but glowing things to say, I simply loved everything about this book. …

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You’re Officially One of My Favorite Authors, Celeste Ng

Book Review | Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng on Peonies and Bees by Dara Boxer

Celeste Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told You, made it onto my personal ‘top five books I read in 2016’ list. In fact, I still get chills thinking about it. Ng’s writing is so powerful and deeply, harrowingly insightful. When Ng’s second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, was released last year, and immediately climbed the ranks as a NYT Best Seller, I was a tad bit skeptical. The same thing happened with Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and Shari Lapena. And you all know how disappointed I was with all three of those authors second novels… 

But of course I was going to give Little Fires Everywhere a shot, I mean, how could I not?

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Perplexing Thoughts about Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

Perplexing Feelings about Lilac Girls by Martha Hall KellyDeep exhale. Martha Hall Kelly’s first novel, Lilac Girls was really tough for me to rate on GoodReads. Mainly because I have very strong and conflicting feelings the way in which this story was told. Lilac Girls is based off a true story, the horrors that took place at Ravensbrück, and the ‘Rabbits’ that were experimented on. If this book added any good into the world, it brought this piece of history — one that is so often overlooked when it comes to WWII — to life. It’s rare that I walk away from a WWII novel and dislike it, or rate it lower than a 4 on GR, but with Lilac Girls….Lilac Girls made me really ragey…  

My biggest issue with the book is, well, the piss poor story telling. If you’re familiar with Elizabeth Gilbert’s work, you know that she’s a believer that creative ideas are floating around in the universe, waiting to be claimed. Stories are begging to be told, and it’s just a matter of who listens, and who claims it as theirs. With that said, I think if this creative idea for a story was given to any other writer it would have given the story justice. And I’m honestly heartbroken at how disappointing the story was molded by Martha Hall Kelly. Let me explain……

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Two Audiobooks You’ll Be Glad You Listened To

Some books are meant to be listened to. I’m a firm believer in that, and will preach that until the day I die.

Though, I do get a tad anxious anytime I load up a new audiobook, because the flip side of believing some books are meant to be listened to, I also strongly believe that terrible narration can ruin a perfectly well written novel. And trust me, it’s happened so many times over the course of my audiobook listening life, that I’m pretty used to it by now. …

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